news

Home | news | Press Releases

Press Releases

GE GLOBAL RESEARCH AWARDED RECOVERY ACT GRANTS FOR ENERGY SAVING, NEXT GENERATION LIGHTING PROJECTS

Washington, DC, January 15, 2010
Congressman Paul Tonko announced today that General Electric Global Research in Niskayuna has been awarded two grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act totaling $5.77 million for high-efficiency solid-state lighting projects.

Congressman Paul Tonko announced today that General Electric Global Research in Niskayuna has been awarded two grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act totaling $5.77 million for high-efficiency solid-state lighting projects. Solid-state lighting (SSL), which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) instead of standard incandescent bulbs, has the potential to be ten times more energy efficient than current sources.

 
“These smart investments that we are making today will soon pay off with more energy efficient lighting that will cut our energy use and ultimately our reliance on imported foreign oil,” said Rep. Tonko. “These funds will also position our country and American companies like GE as global leaders in the creation of this energy efficient technology, and potentially create new jobs due to the cutting edge research done right here in our community.”
 
The 17 grants announced today through the Department of Energy address the full spectrum of research, development and deployment of solid state lighting technologies. The $37 million in grants are being leveraged with a private industry cost share worth $28 million dollars.
 
Below are details on the two GE projects being funded by the grants:
 

Company
Project
Total DOE Funding
Total Project Value
GE Global Research, Niskayuna
Optimized Phosphors for Warm-White LED Light Engines.  GE Global Research, in collaboration with GE Lumination and the University of Georgia (UGA), seeks to develop optimized phosphor systems and packaging for LED down-conversion
$1,774,565
$2,535,095
GE Global Research, Niskayuna
Roll-to-Roll Solution-Processable Small-Molecule OLEDs.  This project seeks to upgrade GE’s prepilot OLED roll-to-roll manufacturing line through improved high-performance phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials, advanced OLED device architectures, plastic ultra-high barrier films, and an advanced encapsulation scheme.
$3,999,966
$7,999,932

 
This is the sixth round of DOE funding for SSL technology research and development, but the first time DOE has funded SSL manufacturing projects. This expanded focus is part of a new DOE initiative to accelerate the adoption of SSL technology and encourage U.S.-based manufacturing of SSL lighting technologies to create jobs and promote America’s role as a global leader in energy efficiency.
 
# # #
 

Stay Connected